Bio:

Key Biscayne, Florida
December 31, 2001
11:35 pm
(18 years ago)

Something woke Henry Carter up. He didn’t know what it was. But it didn’t matter. He was awake. Henry sat up and looked around the bedroom. He saw what the time was, and realized that his parents weren’t home yet. They were still at a New Year’s Eve party, and wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours.

Henry looked around the room, and noticed that there seemed to be a strange light shining through the window. He climbed down off of the top bunk of the bed, disturbing his sister in the lower bunk on his way down. She mumbled something unintelligible. Henry ignored her. He walked over to the window and looked outside.

The Carter’s house was located on the edge of the state park. The trees of the park’s forest came right up to the edge of their backyard. And at the tree’s edge was a glowing ball of light. It was three feet around, and floating three feet above the ground. It looked like a ball of pure moonlight. Henry felt hypnotized by it, and thought he could hear faint music coming from it. He whispered, “Beth, come look!”

His sister rolled out of bed and groaned, “What Henry? I’m tired.” But she shuffled over to the window. She froze when she looked outside.

Beth and Henry stared at the globe of soft light for several minutes before Beth whispered, “Have you ever heard such beautiful music?” Henry shrugged. The music was so faint he wasn’t sure if it was real, or if he was imagining it.

Beth turned to Henry and said, “Henry, stay here. I am going to go out and look at it.”

Beth put her finger to her lips. “Shhhh. I am only going into the backyard. You can watch me through the window.” Then she put on her nightrobe and left the room. Henry heard her walk down the hall, and open the door. Beth appeared outside, and Henry watched as she slowly walked over to the globe of pearly light. Beth stood transfixed in front of the ball several moments before she reached out and touched it. A ring of rainbow color rippled across the globe, away from the point of contact. The mysterious ball floated away from Beth several feet and drifted to a stop. Beth advanced to the globe and touched it again, creating the same rainbow ripple as before. But this time the ball of light did not stop. It drifted deeper into the woods until Henry couldn’t see it anymore. And Beth followed it out of Henry’s sight.

Back at the window, Henry whimpered, “Beth, no. Don’t leave me.”

Henry never saw Beth again.

Miami, Florida
June 13, 2018
11:35 am
(Present day)

Something woke Flash Carter up. He didn’t know what it was. But it didn’t matter. He was awake. Flash sat up and looked around the bedroom. He saw what the time was, and realized that his roommates weren’t home yet. They were still at work. Flash vaguely remembered something about a party for one of their coworkers. So they wouldn’t be home for another couple of hours.

Flash looked around the room, and noticed the bright sunshine streaming in through the window. He rolled out of bed, disturbing the woman lying next to him. She mumbled something unintelligible. Flash ignored her. He shuffled over to the window and looked outside.

The apartment was located on the edge of Amelia Earhart Park. The trees of the park’s forest came right up to the edge of the parking lot. And sitting at the tree’s edge was a large beach ball. The ball belonged to the woman lying in his bed. Flash grinned and called out to the woman to wake her up. “Beth, come look.”

The woman in his bed rolled out and glared at him. “Beth!? My name is KRYSTA!! Just who the hell is BETH??”

Krysta began pulling on her clothes in a hurry. “You son-of-a-bitch. Answer my question, jerk. Who is this Beth?”

“Aw Krysta. Don’t leave. Stay here. Beth is just my…” Flash stopped in mid sentence. He turned and stared out the window in shock as a wave of De Je Vu rolled over him.

Beth was his sister.

Krysta started ranting. “You lousy two-timing pig. I should have known better that to trust you.” Krysta continued to verbally berate Flash as she got dressed. Flash continued to ignore her and stare at the beach ball outside. He hadn’t thought about his sister in years. So why did he call her name out just now? And what was it about this situation that bought all those memories flooding back so suddenly?
Krysta finished dressing and grabbed her purse. She left the room. Flash heard her walk down the hall, and open the door. Krysta appeared outside, and Flash watched as she quickly stomped over to the beach ball and picked it up. She stood up again, and continued stomping away. Krysta followed the trail into the forest and walked until she was out of Flash’s sight.

Back at the window, Flash whispered, “Beth, no. Don’t leave me.”

Flash never saw Krysta again.

Flash remained transfixed by the window until the phone rang and broke the spell of De Je Vu. His roommates were going out with their coworker, and they were calling to let Flash know that they wouldn’t be back until late.

After hanging up the phone, Flash started making breakfast. As the bread was toasting, his gaze fell upon the document lying on the kitchenette table. It was the weird contract from Max Delancy. Flash read over it again. It was worded strangely, but basically, Max had a client that wanted an investigation done up in St. Augustine. The client wanted to know the truth about the ghost sightings there. The client was willing to pay a large amount of money to get that truth. And that made Flash grin. Whoever the client was knew that Flash was the best. Or Max had finally realized that. Either way, Flash was finally getting his due. And if the client was hiring a photographer of Flash’s quality, the rest of the team would likely be almost as good.

Flash felt much better. This job would surely be the beginning of very good things.